Life Lessons From Holiday Cooking

Nine years ago ‘The Boys’, my son Daniel and I, decided we’d take on the task of doing most of the Christmas holiday cooking. It was our way of giving ‘The Girls’, my wife Laura and daughter Melanie, a break to relax and enjoy the holidays. My wild, crazy idea!

NOTE: The photo above includes some of the sweets and “treats” made as part of the holiday cooking marathon.

We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into when we started. But after eleven recipes and 12+ hours of meal preparation, cooking and the clean up, let’s just say we had learned a lot from the experience.

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Do & Don’t Lists for 2020

The holidays are a perfect time for both reflection and renewal. And it’s an excellent time to formulate the list of things you want to accomplish in the New Year.  While enjoying quality time with family and friends, of course. So, let’s get started on our lists.

“The best way to prepare for life is to begin to live.” – Elbert Hubbard

Here are my suggested Top 5 “Do” and Top 5 “Don’t” lists to help us formulate our New Year’s resolutions and goals for 2020.

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Make Your Vision Reality

Each year in Times Square at the stroke of midnight the ball drops officially ushering in a New Year. A time to start anew … new hopes, new dreams, and a new list of New Year’s resolutions, goals and challenges awaits each of us.

Yes, it’s hard to believe the first week of 2020 is fast approaching. So, what’s next for you? Do you have a personal plan to prepare you for success in the New Year? Most importantly …

Do your goals align with your vision?

When I think of the challenges most of us must confront in aligning our goals with our vision, I’m reminded of this quote from Isaac Asimov:

“Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It’s the transition that’s troublesome.”

Getting to where we want to go, from where we are today, is the ultimate challenge for most of us. This transition is also the most troublesome. Why? Because it requires us to move away from old habits and traditional thinking to achieve this new reality.

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There Is No Secret Formula

There are no secret potions, magic beans or fairy dust required to meet your goals for 2019 and beyond.

Yes, it is getting close to that time of the year again – the dreaded end of the calendar year. A time when many business owners review their financials and breathe a sigh of relief, or go into full-blown panic mode because the numbers are not there.

So, how are the end-of-year numbers stacking up for your business?

Are you feeling good about all that you and your team have accomplished so far this year, or are you scrambling for a quick fix to try and salvage the final year-end results?

If you are searching for a secret potion, magic beans or fairy dust to supernaturally improve things, then please stop! Review the blog articles I posted titled, It’s Time to “Ante Up”! and Who Wants Customers For Life?. You will find some great tips to help improve your top- and bottom-line performance.

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Growth Through Subtraction

The old adage that “you don’t get bigger by getting smaller” does not always apply in the modern world. In order to thrive in today’s fast-paced global marketplace you must think differently about what is essential to growth, and where and how to invest your time and limited resources.

Big corporations have gotten it wrong for decades. To artificially “pump up” stock prices and appease shareholders and the board of directors, they have historically downsized and reorganized during the fourth quarter to improve short-term financials. However, if you do not make fundamental changes to improve operational performance, this is a “slowly bleed to death” strategy that ultimately leads to disaster.

“When you remove just the right things in just the right way, something very good happens.”—Matthew E. May Continue reading…

How to Create a Winning Culture

Do you believe that creating a winning culture is vital to the success of your business? If no, skip to the next article. If yes, what steps have you taken to build a winning culture within your organization?

Each year Fortune and Forbes magazines’ complete extensive surveys and publish their respective lists of the “Best Places to Work”. These surveys rank the top companies in a broad range of categories including job satisfaction, pay and benefit programs, attitudes about management, internal communication, hiring practices, training, and diversity efforts.

What makes these businesses great companies to work for and recognized leaders in their respective industries?

Whether your business is a start-up or well established, it’s important to recognize that everyone wants to be a part of building something special — a great company. And culture is an undeniable part of the fabric of any great company. A lot has been written about culture and its importance, but do we really understand what goes into creating a winning culture? Continue reading…

When Results Matter Most

“Our results, much like our footprints, show us where we’ve been, not necessarily where we are going.”

Results are the yardstick by which we measure our performance, progress and our level of success. It is born out of Logic 101. “A thing that is caused or produced by something else; a consequence or an outcome.” If I do this … then this will occur. So now that we are closing in on the end of 2020, what more needs to be done by year-end in order for you to achieve success?

The one common thread that connects each of us, is a desire for MORE. We all desire more of something – money, free-time, sleep, etc., which translates to a requirement for more results. Unfortunately, our need for instant gratification and an endless pursuit of unfulfilled needs, wants and desires has moved us away from a longer-term focus and strategies beneficial to achieving personal/professional growth and success. Continue reading…

What Have We Learned?

If you believe Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her Green Deal supporters, the world will end in 12 years if we don’t start right now to address climate change aggressively.

Ironically, it was 50 years ago that U Thant, then the Secretary-General of the United Nations, made a similar declaration about the future of mankind. He stated that the “Members of the United Nations have perhaps ten years left to solve the challenges ahead of us, or they will be beyond our control”.

U Thant’s more detailed comments can be found in the Introduction to the book, The Limits to Growth. It was the first edition of this book back in 1972 that began to reshape my thinking about the world around us and the fate of mankind. In 2012, 40 years later, I released my first book, GLOBALIZATION: America’s Leadership Challenge Ahead that addressed many of these and other global challenges.

Back in April, I discussed one of the major issues from Chapter 5 of my book, Education Revitalized, in a blog article. Now, I want to broaden the conversation. Let’s go back a little farther to see what has changed during the past 47 years since the initial release of The Limits to Growth. Continue reading…

Global Imperative: Education Revitalized

What is the global imperative? If you read my first book, GLOBALIZATION: America’s Leadership Challenge Ahead, you already know the answer … “change your thinking”.

In my opinion, the key to changing your thinking is education. Education is the foundation from which growth and progress springs forth. If we truly want to change our world, and improve the quality of life for all global citizens, it starts with education.

In my book I devoted an entire chapter to Education Revitalized, so let’s look at how we have fared over the past several years since the book was published. Continue reading…

Why Being Average Is Not Bad

I get it. Long before Nickelback’s song became a hit record, we all wanted to be a rock star, 5-star athlete, prom queen, Hollywood icon, or a perfect 10. But are these realistic goals for most of us, or are they holding us back?

Too often in today’s world I hear people refer to average as being mediocre. This places an inaccurate, very negative label on being average. Although average is an unfortunate synonym for mediocre, look closer at the definition. 

What Does “Average” Actually Mean?

Average is the result that you get when you add two or more numbers together and divide the total by the number of numbers you added together. … An average person or thing is typical or normal. Let me repeat that last phrase … “An average person or thing is typical or normal.” So, if being average means you are normal, how can that be a bad thing?

It isn’t. However, our obsession with being a perfect 10 when most of us are 6, 7 or 8s, or the belief that being average makes us mediocre is just wrong-headed thinking. Sure we all want to be successful, want our businesses and our children to excel, but keep things in perspective. Continue reading…